Natasha's secret
by JustSomeFandomGirl
Summary: Natasha went into hiding three years ago because of her daughter but she never meant to hide her from steve, just the bad attention it would bring.
1. Chapter 1

Overcast with dark grey clouds, lightning struck, lighting up the gloominess and revealing a lone house in the distance to a rain soaked shadow.  
Flowers bursting with colour overgrew the hidden path which the rain was now washing away completely, but the man's footprints squelched forward, approaching the wooden varnished door.

_Knock_

_Knock_

_Knock_

The bang echoed through the desolate meadow, sending birds flying into the darkness in utter fear away from their high up perches.

Footsteps approached the door fast without giving the soaked figure a chance to think, a chance to prepare, a chance to even breathe.  
The door handle pushed down from the other side and screeched open revealing a beautifully decorated house and a blue eyed child.

Clint crouched down into the puddle under his feet to come face to face with the young girl, taking in all of her features, her dirty blonde hair, her ice like coloured eyes, the little freckles that bridged over the very pale skin on her nose.

"Barton?" The voice bounced off the walls of the hallway behind the young child "what are you doing here?"

"Are you just going to leave me standing out here?"

The two shared a smile at each other.

* * *

"It's time to come home now Nat."

"you know I can't do that… and besides, this is home now." Natasha stared lovingly at the 3 year old building up a mega-blocks tower and pushing it over before exploding into hysterical laughter.

"Steve has a right to meet her and to get to know her."

Steve's name pushed the conversation between the pair into an uncomfortable silence. Natasha pushed the thought of Steve out of her mind on a regular basis, the guilt ate at her and the longer she was away for, the worse it became. The red head sighed, she always thought it difficult to phone out of the blue or turn up with a daughter he'd never met, and besides, how is it fair that Steve meets the toddler the same time as everybody else? How was it fair that Clint met her before the biological father? She simply couldn't face the idea of going back.

But she knew she had to.

"I want him to meet her here first." It was a simple demand really. She knew her daughter very well to know that her meeting Steve along with the rest of the avengers would push her into a meltdown, the toddler had never dealt well with meeting new people which made shopping and socialising a regular struggle.

"He's away on a mission and he wont be back for a little while Nat."

The red head huffed, she couldn't face her demons but she new she had to. It was time to go back.


	2. Chapter 2

Natasha awaited eagerly in the slowly moving elevator.  
This would be the first time she was seeing her old friends for three years and none of them except for Clint knew her secret. With each passing second of being in the elevator the more anxious Nat became, she could feel the sweat releasing out of the pores on her hands as she twirled her daughters' long locks around her finger in anticipation. The toddler was fast asleep against Natasha's chest, it did baffle her how she managed to sleep through the loud pounding in her chest as they approached the top floor.

The metallic doors opened, revealing a rather empty avengers tower. A shower of relief poured of Natasha, one exhale erased all the anxiousness in her body.

"Do you mind if I let her sleep on the sofa while I unpack our things?"

Her best friend nodded in response, reaching his arms out to take the sleeping beauty out of her arms.

* * *

The small figure slept peacefully on the sofa next to Barton, tucked away under a thick coated fluffy blanket, her features rested peacefully. Not for long however, as the missing avengers besides from Steve, of course, walked out of the elevator door, their voices discussing the effects of gamma radiation filled the silence in the room, however, the conversation was discontinued when tony had clocked on to the fact that Clint was sitting on the sofa facing away from them.

"Any luck?"

"Yeah, she's back."

Banner exhaled a sigh of relief, he had missed Natasha after all. Thor, however, was the first to notice the sleeping toddler next to Clint and didn't even hesitate to speak.

"I assure you, Asgard has a potion to cure this, Loki used to do this all the time to people when we were kids, I can take young Natasha with me back to Asgard!"

Confused glances were shared among everyone else at Thor's sudden outburst until they all realised where exactly his eyes were making a bumble bee trail to.

"That won't be necessary but thank you Thor." Natasha spoke smoothly, entering the now full room in no time when she heard her old friends returning from god knows where.

Glances even more confused than before were still being shared among the room, Thor being the most confused until he had his much-awaited light bulb moment.

"She is your daughter!" Thor exclaimed with a grin as he finally understood.

"Little red…" Tony was lost for words just as much as banner was, but he proceeded to complete his sentence "… I thought you couldn't?" Silence loomed within the room momentarily until stark continued having a conversation to Natasha but mainly with himself as he wasn't giving her a chance to speak. His mind began working at a 1000 miles per hour rate and showed no signs of slowing down. "Steve… the serum!?" The billionaire, playboy, philanthropist really was great at piecing everything together, but Nat figured he had the upper hand regardless, his father basically loved Steve anyway.

"You and Captain Rogers must be so happy!" Thor congratulated, pulling Natasha into a suffocating hug.

The comforting silence after the questions stopped was short lived as Thor's booming voice awoke the slumbering child from her sleep.  
Natasha reached instantly for her child to soothe her from her confusion.

"I apologise young one." Thor approached the scared looking toddler and poked her button nose, which only made matters worse as this sent the 2-year-old into a meltdown mode, red in the face she threw her head back as the small child continued to create such a big sound.

"Make it stop that"

Natasha pulled her daughter closer into her chest gently swinging her back and forth. "she's just confused, she'll come around soon"

In among all of the noise Pepper had made an entrance "Oh my gosh… that's a child!"

Tony rolled his eyes before muttering an almost silent "oh boy" Pepper paused for not even half a second before continuing to walk towards the two other females in the room with the usual bounce in her step.

Pepper couldn't get a great look at the now sobbing child as her head remained buried into the crook of her mothers' neck. "well, you're a pretty little princess aren't you!" Pepper cooed. Resulting in the child slowly looking up at the unfamiliar woman with her big blue eyes, sharing a little smile at her new friend.

"baba!"

"I'm pepper"

"baba!"

"Peh-Pah"

The toddler paused for a moment, watching carefully on how the words formed on peppers lips.

"beba!"

The strawberry blonde smiled sweetly to the toddler, cheering at her. "may I?" Pepper reached her arms out for the small figure once she had Nat's approval.

._.-._.

The sun began to set softly over the avenger's tower. Pepper was stacking blocks with her newfound friend, slowly building up a tower so that the child could take it all in, but this was nothing but a game to the young girl as she pushed the small tower over, bursting out into hysterical laughter.  
Pepper remained patient repeating all of the previous steps as Natasha fed a before-bed snack to the now happy child.  
Happy never lasted long for the blue eyed child when it was time for bed, especially as she was having such a ball with her friend.

"It's time for bed now sweetie, say goodnight to everyone."

Ignoring her mothers words, she continued to push the building blocks towards Pepper, gesturing for her to build them up again.

"It's time for bed now Lucy-loo, but we can play again in the morning once you've had your beauty sleep, every princess needs their beauty sleep, don't they?"

"No." the child crossed her arms as she went red in the face, on the verge of yet another meltdown.

"Come on Lucy" Natasha reached to pick up the now sad child to take her to bed, pushing her into yet another terrible-twos-tantrum. Natasha and Pepper were trying everything they could to calm down the child before she got into too much of a bad state but in among the screaming and the crying, and the attempts of comforting, the elevator doors opened, revealing a very tired, and a very confused looking Steve Rogers.

* * *

A/N: I want to update as regular as I can so I'm going to aim for at least one chapter a week, also thank you for the positive feedback, I'm very grateful :)


	3. Chapter 3

Confusion wore Steve's face, he didn't get it. At all. He was away on a mission for all of two months and now there's a screaming, crying toddler in the living room of the avengers tower. The deafening cries which came from the child only got louder, tears formed perfect rivers down the sides of the toddlers cheeks. Steve dropped his bag on the floor to closely inspect what was going on, he approached the three girls hesitating with each footstep closer. Natasha's face paled instantly the moment she saw Steve who was now kneeling on the floor, face to face with the child, taking in all of their similarities, everything slowly piecing together in his head.

She undoubtedly had his eyes.

"Mommy!" Lucy began crying hysterically. Nat didn't expect any less at this point, she was already unsettled because of being in unfamiliar surroundings and she was already upset because she didn't want to go to bed. Two negatives usually make a positive but this is a 2-year-old child we're on about here.

The toddlers arms were up, giving Natasha no other choice but to hold her.

"She's mind isn't she?" His voice contained a mixture of emotions, anger stuck out the most.

"I can't do this right now, Steve" Lucy had finally stopped crying, she was reassured and now she was ready for bed.

"Then when, Nat?" Steve bit his tongue, holding back from saying too much for the sake of the child in Natasha's arms. This was heavy on her too. He hated hating Nat but she had no difficulty in doing this to him and that hurt.

"I'm sorry."

"Because that word with bring back the two years worth of milestones I missed. Thank you." Natasha exhaled heavily, all energy to carry on arguing at this current moment had disappeared in the blink of an eye, she had more important things to be doing right now. So the argument was put on pause the moment Nat carried Lucy to bed with zero explanation and no reply, leaving an infuriated Steve to vent to Pepper.

* * *

Tension in the avengers tower hadn't lowered at all by the next day, Natasha pausing the argument the night before was perhaps the worst thing she could have done seeing as they had both been letting their anger out on each other for the past 2 hours In the living room.

While everybody else was stuck in Tony and Peppers room trying to avoid getting caught up on sides.

"You could have just told me!"

"I was scared goddammit Steve, I should have told you, I know, I get it. She's Captain America's child, she basically has a target on her head! How was I supposed to know you'd care anyway, it was a drunken one night stand."

Those words physically hurt for Nat to say, especially when she watched his face sadden.

"I was sober."

Those words physically hurt Nat even more. How could she forget that Steve couldn't get drunk due to the serum. Mentally cursing at herself she sat down in defeat on the floor with her back against the wall.

* * *

"They've been quiet a while…"

While everyone else was going insane being too uncomfortable to leave the room, Lucy was having the time of her life bouncing up and down on the king sized bed, giggling to herself every so often. After a while she had since proceeded to pulling on Thor's long golden locks. She had watched her mother plating her hair every evening after baths and became frustrated that Thor's hair wouldn't do the same.

"Broke." Lucy finally huffed while crossing her arms.

* * *

"What's her favorite food?"

The atmosphere was definitely more healthier at this moment in time.

"It changes every week. Right now she likes grapes, but they have to be cut into quarters otherwise she wont even look at them."

Steve took a seat next to Nat, not to close, but still next to her regardless.

* * *

"That's a beautiful drawing Lucy, is it you?"

"Silly Peba, it's mommy… I miss mommy."

Pepper picked up Lucy who was holding on very tightly to the drawing, and proceeded out of the bedroom with everyone else closely behind taking this as permission to leave now.

"Mommy!" Lucy cheered in pure excitement the moment she saw her mothers soft features.

Pepper placed her down on the floor and with out even hesitating, Lucy darted in the direction of her mothers arms.  
Natasha took the drawing our of Lucy's hands and admired it.

"You are so good at drawing aren't you sweetie! But next time you'll have to draw daddy too."

Steve felt a fluttering sensation in his chest, right where his heart is located.  
That little artist was his daughter.


	4. Chapter 4

In a very pretty pink room located within the top floor of the avengers tower, which, by the way, tony demanded he build for the new addition of the avengers family sat a sulking Lucy.

"Let me put your shoes on please, Lucy!"

"No."

The stubborn 2-year-old crossed her arms in defiance, refusing to give into her very stressed out mother.  
The plan for the day was very simple. Breakfast no later than 10, be ready by 12 to go shopping and then, if, (**if** being the key word in that sentence) Lucy was on her best behavior they would buy some ice cream and go to the park for an hour or two.

It was almost 2pm.

"I want daddy to do it."  
the child crossed her legs as tight as she possibly could to make such a simple task 100 times harder.

"Daddy isn't here right now sweetie."

Everyone was out doing jobs for Fury leaving Natasha and Lucy to do what needed to be done around the tower, shopping being number one on the list.

"You leave me no choice." A huff pushed itself out of Natasha nose before she pounced onto the child and began tickling her.

Natasha won eventually.

* * *

"I don't mind taking her to the park."

The words that came out of Steve's mouth sent Natasha's mind into a panic. Due to antics that occurred earlier on in the day Natasha didn't take her daughter to the park, and it's not that she had an issue with Steve taking Lucy to the park, summer nights were much longer so it wouldn't start to get dark for another few hours. What Nat had said a few days back is what troubled her.

Steve and Lucy had never been outside together alone.

With Lucy being Captain America's daughter she really did have a red target on the center of her forehead.

"I'll keep her safe." Steve could see Nat's brain reaching speeds of 1000 miles per hour, Natasha accepted that Lucy and Steve were bonding and that was great, but Steve needed trust from her, Natasha needed trust off Steve just as equally, and trust is a big need when co parenting.

As helpless as she felt giving in to Steve, she knew it was important, the pair of them needed time to bond and get to know each other. Natasha believed she was the wall that blocked them from bonding properly so she took her place on the couch and watched as the two year old clung on to her fathers side in pure excitement.

* * *

Giggles filled the empty air in the park as Steve pushed his child on the swing, he felt like a normal human being for too much time.  
The toddler flung her self off from the swing that was reaching sky level heights in her eyes, resulting in Steve bolting towards her in fear that she was severely injured.

"Be careful" Steve cooed, scooping Lucy up in his arms checking for any injuries.  
While stopping her self from giggling she demanded to go to the slide in her usual chirpy tone.

The sun sat perfectly on top of the city structures, watching the sky change from a light blue to a mix of oranges, pinks and purples signalling to Steve that perhaps they had been in their own bubble at the park for a little too long and Natasha was probably losing her sanity back at home in a complete panic.

"One more."

"One more, and then we go home to see mommy okay?" Steve compromised for his daughter, he knew, as many issues himself and Natasha had been through and still continued to go through, this would have been even more perfect if she had been here with the pair of them.

Americas blue eyed boy was too caught up in the in his mind to notice a girl snapping a few photos of him spending quality time with his daughter.

* * *

A/N I'm sorry you've all waited so long for a small update but it's starting to pick up now.

Also, for the ones of you who read "when it all goes bad" I've had some serious inspiration for it and it's getting a re-write from a whole different perspective.


	5. Chapter 5

"You're really are lucky she didn't kill you there and then."

Natasha wasn't the happiest that Steve brought Lucy home from the park two hours after her scheduled supper time but she had been more concerned that someone had kidnapped them, or more so Lucy. However, Natasha let go of the situation as quick as she could, she didn't want to confuse Lucy by arguing with her new best friend and more definitely she didn't want to be an enemy in her daughters eyes.

"Leave it now, Tony, he brought Lucy home safe, nobody saw them, the park was empty right, Steve?"

Releasing a soft smile at the red-head beside from him he began to reassure her.

"Of course, nobody else was there, Lucy has no attention as being my child in the media, I promise you, she's safe"

Everyone would be trying to get their hands on Captain America's child if that was the case, but as far as she was aware, it wasn't the case. Natasha released a sigh of relief before dropping herself down onto the sofa across from Steve.

* * *

Midnight filled the empty corridors within the avengers tower. Everyone slept peacefully in the comforts of their beds.

Besides from one.

Petrified cries coming from Lucy's bedroom ripped the once silent atmosphere into shreds.  
Natasha began locating her way to the loudest room in the tower, her feet making a soft pit-patting sound on the cold wooden floor.

Silence.

Panic set in momentarily, resulting in her picking the pace up to the toddlers room until she heard Steve comforting Lucy through her sobs.

"It was a just a silly dream, you're okay."

His voice was soothing, ushering Lucy into silence, it was enough to even calm Natasha down from her small panic mode.  
Peeking between the gap in the door, the sight upset Natasha, admittedly it shouldn't, but it was the realisation that maybe Lucy wouldn't need her anymore, Steve had handled the situation so well. The night light which gave off a warm, calming colour, reflected onto the pair, Steve had Lucy sat on his lap, rubbing her back in a circular motion sending the child with sweat soaked hair and tear stained cheeks back to sleep.

She left him to it.

A mixture of guilt, fear and jealousy kept Natasha up for the remainder of the night, the thoughts occurring in her mind cancelled out the silence. Fear stuck out the most. Natasha was afraid of losing her daughter, their daughter. Not so deep down she believed she deserved it too, maybe if she had let Steve know he had a child while staying in hiding, this wouldn't of happened, but that wasn't how it turned out.

Natasha really needed a person of her own to comfort her but instead, with an aching heart, she fell back to sleep on her own accord, to the sound of chirping birds and chaos in her mind.

* * *

"I'll transfer $1 million over to you as we speak, if you remove the story completely off your search engine – and the photos… I'm sorry, or lack of, but I don't think you quite understand the security issues that this is going to have on the kid… No you listen to me-"

"Tony!"

Rolling his eyes at pepper he continued bargaining with the person on the phone, taking his anger at steve out on the poor guy on the recieving end of the line. Steve should have known better, for sure.

"Fine. $1 million and I'll come to your sons birthday party."

Hanging up the phone Tony tried as hard as he possibly could to compose himself

Inhale, through the nose, exhale, through the mouth.

which tony figured was complete, and utter bullshit in this situation.

"I've bought this entire city out, Rogers, I've even bought Google out. How could you be so god damn reckless with the kid?!"

"I didn't see anyone, I assumed –"

"Oh you assumed, Pepper, he assumed. You should know better just because you don't see them that doesn't mean they don't see you."

"What's going on?"

The sudden sound of Natasha's voice brought the argument to a complete standstill.

"Blind spots, Steve want's to learn how to drive."

Nodding in acceptance, she placed the half asleep toddler next to Steve on the sofa.

"You're reaction time may be slower, you know, old age and stuff."

Tony held his hand out for a high five. He was really proud of her comment, more proud of the fact Steve's cheeks turned a bright shade of pink in embarrassment.

* * *

As the elevator reached the ground floor the sound of chatter became louder and louder

"_Tourists_" Natasha figured to herself, this was Avengers Tower after all.  
Unfortunately these weren't any 'tourists', paparazzi would be a much better word to describe the desperate crowds of people.  
Everything went bright as Natasha became struck by blindness from the flash of several cameras as she pushed the main door to the tower open.

"Miss Romanoff! You disappeared off the radar for three years, Mr Rogers was spotted with a young child not far after your return, is this a coincidence?"

Steve told her that he had kept Lucy out of the media's eye.

"Is he the father?"

This can't be happening, he said he'd kept Lucy safe, he promised.

He promised.

All Natasha could do was think, she was frozen like a deer in the headlights, the one thought that stuck out the most in her head was to run away, one more time, back into hiding, just so she could hold her daughter safe in her arms, but Steve, steam practically poured out of her ears at the thought of him but Lucy got on with him so well. Natasha, feet super glued at her own crossroads hadn't even noticed she had been pulled back into the tower, leaving the door bounce closed on the crowds faces.

"Jarvis, put the place on lock down, I don't want anyone leaving and I most certainly do not want anyone entering the building."

"Yes sir, initiating lock down."

* * *

A/N If anyone has any ideas I'm open to any suggestions, also please don,t hesitate to leave a review or inbox me, good or bad, i'd appreciate any advice.


	6. Chapter 6 (Filler)

Anger soured through every muscle, every bone, every nerve and every cell inside of Natasha's body as she continued to curse and lash-out on the nervous-wreck that was currently Steve Rogers.

"Just listen to me!" Steve screamed. He had enough of this situation, and it was only being made worse. It wasn't ideal, no, he knew this, he messed up, he knew this too. This is the card that they had been dealt and there was no going back now. It could have been avoided but perhaps this needed to happen.

"I listened to you, alright!" Nat had paused for a moment before continuing.  
"I listened to when you said you'd take Lucy to the park, when you said nobody saw you and when you said- when you promised that Lucy was safe from the media."

"I thought- "

"I don't care what you though. It's all pointless now. It's unsafe for her to stay here now."

Natasha's nails, or lack of, due to them all being bitten down to the nib, tapped up and down in a rhythmic way, trying and failing to rid herself of stress.

Out of the darkness sounded a set of small feet, stomping their way into the direction of Steven and Natasha.

"what are you doing out here sweetie?" Nat's voice had softened almost instantly at her 2-year-old.

Ignoring her mothers inquiry, Lucy continued treading her way to her father, climbing on to his lap to give him a big hug. This was a very delicate situation, as Nat had mentally noted it would be only the night before.

"It's not nice to shout, mommy!" The stubborn 2-year-old had crossed her arms, narrowing her eyes into a squint at her mother.

Nat was angry, furious at Steve, but as young as Lucy was, she knew she was right, there were much better ways to resolve this horrible situation.

"You are right sweetie; I am sorry for raising my voice and shouting. Steve, how do you think we should continue?"

* * *

The world knew about Lucy, and perhaps it wasn't the worst thing. Yes, they would be questioned daily, but now, they could explore New York with their daughter, Together.  
A smile rose to Steve's face at the thought, perhaps now they could move forward and work it out.


End file.
